Bangalore:
IT exports from India grew 34.5 per cent to $17.2 billion in the year
ending March 2005 on the back of a 44.5 per cent jump in business process
outsourcing (BPO) exports, to $5.2 billion, nearly two thirds of which came
from captive units of multinational firms. Software
exports alone grew 31 per cent to $12 billion while revenue from IT-enabled
services rose 45 per cent to $5.2 billion. According
to Kiran Karnik, president Nasscom, the overall growth in IT exports beat
Nasscom's own projections of export revenues of $22.5 billion, a growth of
between 30 per cent and 32 per cent in the fiscal. Including the domestic
IT, IT-enabled services (ITES) and BPO segments, the industry grew 32 per
cent to $22 billion. According
to the Nasscom, Software services grew 30.5 per cent over the previous year
to $12 billion.
Of the $12 billion IT services exports, between 30 per cent and 35 per cent
came from captive units of foreign firms. North
America continued to be India's largest market, accounting for 68 per cent
of the export revenues while Europe accounted for 24-25 per cent, of which
more than half came from the UK. Asia Pacific contributed with 5 per cent,
with the rest from other regions of the world. The
total software and BPO services exported from India was approximately 44 per
cent of all such business offshored, Sunil Mehta, Nasscom's vice president
said. More
than one million people were employed by the IT and ITES industry during the
year. The software services sector directly employed about 6.97 lakh people,
while the ITES industry employed about 3.48 lakh people at the end of last
fiscal. It was estimated that the indirect employment created by the IT industry
in areas such as catering, security and transport services stood at 2.5 million.
According
to Karnik, "If we get government support that we need, we should be on
track to meet the target of $50 billion in IT and ITES-BPO exports. To meet
this target, the domestic market will have
to show compounded annual growth of 30.7 per cent till fiscal 2009. Exports
will have to grow 31.2 per cent and the industry, 31.1 per cent.
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